The ‘tranny’ debate hits high gear

Since June is LGBT month, I thought I’d start it off by talking about something happening in the community which is the use or abuse of the word ‘tranny’. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, recently one of the stars of RuPaul’s drag race Carmen Carrera came out publicly denouncing the use of the word on the show since it’s considered derogatory towards transgender people. RuPaul came back saying that he can say what he wants and wearing a dress makes him part of the community. If you ask me, I think RuPaul is an idiot and as a gay man, has no justification to tell another section of the LGBT community what it should or shouldn’t find offensive any more than I have a right to tell Myanmar to start taking back the name Burma. Transgender people have a deep dysphoria about their body and mind being completely out of whack, RuPaul likes to play dress up for money. But whatever, I’m not going to solve the debate.

But, I’m trying to figure out why RuPaul is so adamant about saying it. I think maybe because it’s such a fun word! I don’t mean etymologically since it started innocently enough years ago and now it’s shouted during every hate crime against trans people or how it’s used by the media to stereotype the entire community but the word itself. I mean the pronunciation, the sounds, everything about it. Tranny. Traaaaannnnyyyy! It’s such a fun word! And let’s face it, if there’s anything drag queens like more than size 13 pumps on sale, it’s fun. Don’t believe me? Try saying this and not smiling. “Let’s shake our fanny at the Tranny Shanty! We’ll put on a bandanny with Manny the Pakistani!”

You don’t get that fun with other slurs, like faggot or kyke or spic- in fact I feel dirty just typing them! They just sound evil. And I won’t even mention the n-word, the only way that sounds musical is if you’re Dr Dre or Ice Cube. And the hard ending on the others, that ‘k’ or ‘t’ sound is just right in your face! I don’t even want to try to make it fun!

But it’s still a slur. It’s used by people who despise the trans community and even by hacky comedians as a punchline. It’s basically a pretty crappy word to say. So maybe we just need to come up with a fun word for drag queens that RuPaul can use instead of it like draggy. Or Dragasauras. DQ? Or maybe you just can’t talk sense to some people.

3 Responses

Tranny is also short for transvestite, and as a man who dresses in women’s clothing, RuPaul has every right to use the word.
Tranny is also short for transmission. Does that mean my mechanic can’t use it when telling me what’s wrong with my car?
It’s a word. If you let words hurt you, you’ve got problems.

Carmen Carrera was on Season 3 of RPDR. It took her until Season 6 to lodge her complaint. So, she was obviously okay with the use of the word over the last 3 years.

The term ‘transvestite’ hasn’t been used in thirty years. People who were once referred to as transvestite are now referred to as cross dressers. Trans-cross, vestite- clothing. And it was considered insulting then which is why it was changed. Rupaul isn’t a ‘transvestite’ any more than any other person who wears a costume for a job. As for a mechanic who would be referring to an inanimate object, are you really going with that as an object? That whole ‘words’ argument has been used a lot in the past, especially about slurs and all I can say is that words don’t hurt people, only the disrespect that comes with people using those words. Especially when it’s someone who’s a supposed ally such as Rupaul.

As for Carmen, it took three years for her to come forward, maybe because she was afraid of the heat she’d take for it, which is precisely what’s happening.

I know this isn’t an argument that’s going to be settled here but I’d be remiss not to at least address it.